Hi Everyone.

So after waiting all this time for an ending to This Blood Is Thick, I'm not really that impressed with it. Apart from some not so great dialogue and pacing, there are a few particular things that bothered me.

The place that Batwoman and Batman are fighting has somehow changed since the previous issue. The hole that they fell into has changed place from what looks like the side of the ship(The Serpents Wake), to a place big enough to land a helicopter, as displayed by the fact that there's a helicopter shown. Also, it's not totally clear to me what happens at the end of this scene.

The scene with Alice/Beth and Hawkfire/Bette doesn't carry on from the previous issue, but instead reenacts it slightly differently. It's not totally clear what Hawkfire does to cut Alices Handcuffs, Alice somehow knows Bettes real name and codename, and she's speaking in her black speech bubbles throughout, even when talking sense and acknowledging family members, which has been done in white speech bubbles in the past. Also, since the previous issue, Alices blue gloves that are chained together have changed to green gloves with handcuffs over them, apart from one panel when they're suddenly pink.

The scene in Gotham Police Department Headquarters doesn't carry on from the previous issue, but replaces a lot of it.

In a previous issue, Jacob tells Catherine he thinks he has a son, but when Bones claims he is Jacobs son, Jacob just denies it. Some more time and details given to this would perhaps have been better than it just going by so quickly like this.

In a previous issue when the Murder Of Crows are being introduced, the only one referred to as being a pilot is Bohaskha Zlenko, and yet he is not the one piloting the helicopter.

Batwoman gets shocked by Batman appearing behind her, when she has been perfectly calm at his sudden appearances before.

All this and the fact that some things were not covered that were supposed to be in the conclusion to the arc. A quote from J.H. Williams:

"There was SO much stuff going to happen, some crazy reveals, the reveal of Bones’ past, just how he connects to Kate and Beth Kane, and a confrontation with Jacob Kane and his Murder Of Crows. Batwoman having the final throw-down with Batman. We were going to give large plot points on how Beth became Alice. Bette Kane a.k.a. Hawkfire shocked and horrified by something Alice/Beth does during the rescue mission. Ultimately bring the entire family to some form of a beginning to heal, and how Maggie would fit into all of this. Chase, seeing the horrors of what Director Bones is doing, was going to cause her to make a radical decision that would forever change her life."

We didn't get any kind of knowledge of how Beth became Alice, and she didn't do anything to horrify Bette/Hawkfire. Most of the rest of these plot points can perhaps arguably have been covered, but some of them seem a little unclear whether they were done correctly.

Have I missed any other problems with it? Let me know if you spotted any.

Scarlotte.

Also, you forget to mention the art, which was uneven (going from "ok" to "ugh my eyes"). I might be superficial or just spoiled by the previous issues, but the art of Batwoman is one of her strong quality. I guess that the let down on the art made even more easy to notice the very weak story.

I was pretty much disappointed by it, after aaaaaallll the wait for it. It was sloppy overall. Look like they didn't know what the hell they were doing, with the storyline, the art, everything. I guess they just wanted to get rid of it quickly and that what J.H. Williams had in mind didn't go along with what they were planning later on (I very hope that is the reason ! Better have great idea and storyline coming otherwise...)

Agreed. The entire issue just felt like a safe exit. It read like DC and/or Andreyko wanted to brush past the previous arc by providing the most basic conclusion possible.

This bothered me a lot. Beth was written very inconsistently between the Williams/Blackman issues and the Andreyko conclusion. There was absolutely no revelation about her past, no meaningful interaction between Kate/Jacob and Beth, and the issue ended by just throwing Beth out of the picture for a while. Major shame.

I thought the same thing while reading. It was very clear that the entire Bone plot was drastically rewritten from its original design to fit in neatly at the end in a way that wouldn't interfere with future issues of Andreyko's run.

Other bothersome issues:

- Agent Chase was glossed over. I really was hoping to see more of her reactions as things began to fall apart with the DEO. Part of me even expected (and hoped) that she would become an extended member of Kate's Bat-Family. Having her become a Private Investigator was an interesting angle, but she deserved a lot more attention than she was given.

- Throwing Jacob and Catherine out of Gotham so quickly felt awkward. So much time was spent showing how strained Kate's relationship with Jacob had become, and yet none of that showed in his departure. I was looking forward to the next arc focusing on the rebuilding of their relationship. And Catherine also was being set up for a bigger role in Kate's life. But she, too, was brushed aside. Who knows when we'll be seeing either of the two again.

- The Batman and Batwoman fight was difficult to follow at certain points, and the conclusion was predictable. I'm sure that everybody was able to see "Batman can escape whenever he wants" and "Inconclusive winner" to be the outcomes of the battle.